Cammie slung her backpack over her shoulder, unused to the way that its key chains and pins clanged against one another. If it were her decision, she would take them off, but it was necessary for her cover.
She was posing as an international student who had spent most of her life in South Korea. She had been born in America but hadn't spent much time here at all. Her language of choice was Korean (at least for her first few weeks there it would be). She didn't know American customs very well but wanted nothing more than to make friends and fit in. Cammie smiled brightly to herself in the mirror, brushing the bottom edges of her bangs with her fingers. She still wasn't used to the bangs, or for that matter the large round glasses that were perched on her nose.
"Hello my name is Madison Kim," she mumbled to herself cheerily. She said the Korean again louder, bowing politely as she did so. She brushed her hair out of her face and groaned.
This character was going to take a lot out of her.
"Madison!" Her on-assignment father called. She sighed and bounced down the stairs, wrapping her fingers around the straps of her bag. It clanged, so loudly. She didn't understand how normal people could bear how loud it was.
"Ready to go, dad," she said in Korean. He smiled but Cammie knew he hated her. He hadn't wanted to take this assignment. He thought that a simple kid would blow his cover. Cammie wasn't a huge fan of him either. He was stubborn, thought he was better than her just because he was older, and was already treating this mission like he wasn't just a supporting character in it all.
At the door she slipped off her house slippers and put on her shoes, calling over her shoulder to her "mom" to have a good day.
She lived close enough to the school to walk, but she, of course, couldn't do that just yet. Madison had never been to America before, especially not Roseville. However, Madison had been so excited to come that she had googled the school and town.
Her "dad" pulled into the schools parking lot and Cammie watched as hundreds of kids her age poured into the high school.
Cammie's spy school was less of a "school" and more of a "class". There were ten of them in all, all of them from different countries. They were all in the program because their parents themselves were top-tier agents. They'd all been in school together since they were old enough to start being educated. Their teacher was Joe Solomon, an agent who had retired from the force early because of a nasty (and classified) accident.
Cameron Ann Morgan: America, Shayla Carly Ashley: Spain, Alexis Hottingly: France, Sierra Perez: Mexico, Brenda Lynn: China, Matthew Penn: England, Sean A. Murphy: Ireland, Christopher Smith: Australia, Kim Namjoon: South Korea, Stephan Brown: Norway.
5 boys, 5 girls. All fluent in each of their own separate languages and dialects along with various other ones. All closer to their teacher than their parents and all as thick as thieves.
Cammie was top of the class so she had been given the first field assignment of all of them. Kim Namjoon was only a few points below her and would both get his own assignment and come to assist her if she ended up needing it, which, she very well might.
In preparation for her assignment, she had to spend her summer in South Korea with the Kim family. She would have rathered been dragged around the world with her workaholic mother but she still enjoyed her time there. Kim Namjoon was her best friend undeniably. They studied best together and they had stayed up late many times before talking about where they thought they were headed in life.
"Nowhere," they both agreed. They had no dreams, no aspirations. They were raised as robots and it had worked. Cammie just did as she was told on most days. The only rule that she had ever broken was to watch Friends with Namjoon.
"Be careful while you are gone," Namjoon had warned.
"I will," Cammie responded. They stared at one another for a moment. They both knew this would generally be a moment to hug one another. Cammie couldn't recall the last time she had hugged someone and wanted to.
"Fighting," Namjoon encouraged instead, holding up a fist. Cammie smiled and repeated the motion.
"See you soon."
Cammie raised her fist to knock on the principal's office door when it suddenly was pulled open. There was a boy standing in the doorway. He was pretty cute, light skin, average height, short hair. Looked to be something of a jock.
"Who are you?" He asked suddenly. Cammie pretended to be scared. She stared at him all wide-eyed for a few seconds and then bowed towards him.
"Hello, I'm Madison," she murmured in Korean. Color rose to her cheeks. "I'm sorry! I'm Madison."
"Oh, you must be the transfer student," he replied. "I'm Josh, the principals' son."
He looked over his shoulder and called to his father. When he looked back at Cammie he was smiling.
"You're good to go in," he told her. Then he paused. "You're from Korea?"
Cammie nodded and clutched the straps of her backpack tightly.
"Huh-" His eyes dragged up and down her body. "You don't look Korean."
"My family wanted me to grow up in an unusual culture," Cammie explained. "So they raised me in Korea but I was born here in America."
A smile crossed his lips and he nodded.
"Interesting," he mumbled. "I'll see you around Madison."
And then Josh left.
The signs that Josh had relayed were undeniable. Dilated pupils, flushed skin, the way his eyes wouldn't leave her body.
He was attracted to her.
Which made a great target for her later. He seemed just cocky enough to pursue her which would be undoubtedly great for her cover later on.
"Well, Ms. Kim. I do hope you find our school to be a good fit for you."
Cammie smiled and nodded shyly. She decided at the moment to grab a hold of one of the stuffed keychains she had, squeezing its torso as if nervous.
She then turned and began to wander down the halls. She had requested not to have anyone help her find even her first class but it was really just so she could get a real-life scope of her new environment. The current battleground.
She had studied maps of the school and knew the layout like the back of her hand. Still, it was always good to put that knowledge into practice. She knew better than to be obvious about it though. She constanted the same hallway, mouthing her classroom number under her breath, making sure to make it seem like she was lost.
"Uhm, are you okay?"
Cammie turned around sharply to the face the small blonde girl that had been eyeing her for quite some time. She had assumed that she would come up to her sooner or later. Cammie shyly nodded her head but didn't speak so the girl continued.
"I'm Liz," she said friendlily. "Are you new here?"
Another nod from Cammie and she quickly whispered a greeting along with her name, making Liz smile.
"It's nice to meet you Madison! Are you having trouble finding your first class? I noticed you wandering around a little bit," she commented sweetly. Her voice was soft, and it made Cammie want to make her voice soft as well. Maybe that would be how Madison would sound most of the time. Soft-spoken. It made sense. She was supposed to be shy.
"Yeah, I'm trying to find classroom number 103," she said. Liz smiled.
"Oh, that's easy," she assured. She pointed towards the correct door. "That's your room and hey if you need a friend don't be afraid to come to find me. I'm always looking forward to talking to someone new!"
The blonde waved at Cammie and then bounced away, so Cammie made her way to the classroom that had been pointed out to her. She had passed it three, maybe four times hoping that someone from that room would notice and offer their help, but that hadn't happened. She peeked into the room to find the classroom was bustling with activity.
Cammie had never been in an actual high school. She had only ever been in her classroom back at the facility for class. Ten people in a classroom, afraid to act up versus twenty-five in one all unafraid of authority was a little jarring, but strangely on the nose.
Cammie nervously shuffled into the classroom, the room going silent as she walked in. She nearly winced for real at that. She wasn't used to so much attention. She couldn't remember the last time she was even in a room with this many people. She looked around the room, trying to spot the teacher, but everyone in the room looked to be a student.
Cammie would have generally just redirected her attention elsewhere. Most likely would have found her own seat in the classroom, not bothering to introduce herself or wait for the teacher to arrive. She didn't see the point in celebrating the arrival of a new student since she knew that everyone already knew that she was new. They'd learn her name in attendance, and if they wanted to befriend her they would when at lunchtime.
Even so, Cammie also knew that it was customary to introduce herself. She also knew that Madison would be so lost and nervous that she would simply hang around the front of the classroom. So, she did until a tall dark haired man entered the room, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and smiled.
"You must be Madison Kim," he greeted pleasantly. He seemed nice. Despite being tall his cheeks were a little plump and rosy red and he had a welcoming smile. "I'm your teacher. Mr. Smith. Sorry for not being here sooner. Wife just had a kid so I stay at home for as long as I can."
He laughed heartily and set his satchel down on his chair. Cammie smiled at him but his story simply piqued her suspicions. Telling her so much personal information for one seemed strange to her. Mr. Solomon never divulged much on his home life, and likewise, Cammie and the rest of the students didn't really talk about their personal life. They all found out everything one way or another since they lived together and were practically family during the school year but that didn't mean they talked about it.
It also seemed suspicious because the touching story was clearly some sort of alibi. It could be a rouse to make it so she didn't suspect he had any malicious intent. He was a family man. People with newborns weren't initially strewn as the evil type.
Cammie made a mental note to keep an eye on him when the bell rang. Mr. Smith cleared his throat and gestured for the class to look at Cammie, even though they were all staring at her anyway.
"I know that we are still waiting for some students to arrive-" Mr. Smith sighed his eyes drifting towards an empty pair of desks at the front of the classroom. He glanced at Cammie. "Do you always arrive early?"
Cammie nodded a short nod. He grimaced.
"Maybe your influence will change Zachary's behavior," he said with a sigh. "You'll sit there."
He then turned his attention back to the class.
"Anyways, this is Madison Kim. She comes all the way from Seoul, South Korea," he introduced. Before he could say more, one of the students, a tall girl with dark hair interrupted.
"Say something in Korean," she blurted. Inwardly, Cammie rolled her eyes.
"Hello, my name is Madison Kim," she introduced in Korean. "It has been me and my brothers dream to come here to America and hopefully later this year he will join me. I look forward to joining your class."
Cammie took a deep bow, making sure to smile shyly at the class. They all sat gobsmacked staring at her and Cammie knew why. It was one thing for a kid to come into the classroom, claiming to be from another heritage and looking like she was actually from there, but Cammie didn't look Korean to anyone, even though her bag, glasses, hairstyle, and clothes reflected their culture. Mr. Solomon had told them before that it didn't matter if they looked like who they claimed to be or not, as long as they acted well enough as it.
Cammie had never believed him until Namjoon convinced her to watch Mean Girls. Seeing the students accept that this Cady was from Africa despite the fact that she didn't look anything like the African stereotype meant that Cammie was confident they would accept her and all it took was her speaking in Korean to convince this bunch.
She walked across the room to the desk she had been informed would be hers. The entire room was separated into seven rows of wooden desks with four columns. Two desks were pressed together as their own little islands. The desk Cammie originally sat at had a name scratched into it.
Zach.
She wrinkled her nose and moved to the desk next to that one. Zach was the name of that student that was generally late that the professor had been talking about. Well, she assumed he went by that nickname. That must be his desk. She didn't want to antagonize anyone. At least, not yet.
She waited patiently throughout the class for him to arrive. Knowing he could arrive at any point during the class (the middle or directly at the end), so she anticipated him. She made sure to take notes in her notebook while her teacher spoke, but it wasn't anything that she hadn't learned before and Mr. Solomon had taught the subject much better.
Madison hadn't ever learned this before of course. This was one of Madison's first real lessons in English too. Cammie made sure to furrow her brows when an especially difficult word was used and to write her notes in and out of Korean.
When she had gotten told that she would be getting the first field assignment of the rest of her classmates she had gotten pretty excited. They didn't often get the chance to venture out of the facility and they had never really gotten to socialize with anyone other than agents.
A whole semester, maybe more with a large group of normies would be an incredible experience. Cammie knew she was fortunate to be the first to experience it.
She was so busy sitting there, pretending to pay attention to the lesson, while keeping her attention mostly on the door that she almost didn't notice the school bell ring.
The bell was shrill and annoying and awful.
Zachary, whoever was, never showed up.
Cammie gathered her materials, sucked in a breath and softly asked a passing student to help her get to her next class.
Author's Note:
With finals coming up (for both College students and younger students) I decided that instead of studying it would be the perfect time to publish and write the first chapter of this new fanfiction! Told you guys I would be back in December and here I am! I hope you guys like this new story so far, it's going to be all spy and all awesome. See you guys next week ;)